BOOK REVIEW. Apostles of feel-good capitalism

Last year, in his work Capital in the Twenty-First Century , French economist Thomas Piketty initiated a fierce and groundbreaking debate in the US as he aggressively debunked everything that capitalists believed was ethical with respect to making money.

Piketty ignited significant arguments around power and money, questioning the myth of quality of life for everyone through capitalism. And the debate is alive and kicking even today.

Enter Nicole Aschoff’s The New Prophets of Capitalism . Aschoff deviates a little from the existing debate around capital in a marginally successful attempt to resurrect socially acceptable versions of ‘capitalism’.

She strikes a chord with the reader as she begins her interrogation into stories being told by a few larger-than-life figures of our society, most of whom are epitomes of success and are, therefore, eminently qualified to voice their opinion of capitalism to the masses.

The book offers a moving and intellectually serious account of these new faces of capitalism and makes the reader stop and think if capitalism is really the tool that can help make the world a better place.

Those many capitalisms “We are all storytellers.” Thus Aschoff begins her book, and quickly gets into clinically analysing the life stories that Sheryl Sandberg (COO of Facebook), John Mackey (CEO of Whole Foods), Oprah Winfrey (media superstar), and Bill and Melinda Gates have been sharing with the world — stories of realism and redefined capitalism.

Each story addresses the problems of corporate tyranny, gender discrimination, environmental degradation, alienation and/or inequalities.

Being an editor of the Left publication Jacobin, Aschoff critically analyses these stories to decode the myriad ways through which these characters became the new prophets of capital.

These prophets, according to Aschoff, are very much like the prophets of yore. They are individuals who, upon receiving a personal call, embarked on a mission to disseminate a new vision of how we can enrich our lives.

The author emphasises that her identified prophets have demonstrated the ‘magical’ ability of accumulating wealth and are in the process of making the world a better place for everyone.

They represent a refined capitalism, to mean conscious capitalism, sustainable capitalism, creative capitalism, eco-capitalism, inclusive capitalism, philanthro-capitalism, and/or equitable capitalism.

Leaning and labouring The book is packed with anecdotes and literary references that illuminate the narrative and is probably deliberately targeted for a general reader. It is short, having only six chapters.

Aschoff begins by dissecting the story of Sandberg, who speaks out to women folk anywhere in the corporate ladder — or at home — about inclusive capitalism (read feminism). Sandberg believes that inclusive capitalism promotes involvement of women at top levels and she is the propagator of the ‘Lean In’ movement.

This chapter is a must read; it’s a delight to see Aschoff define the movement, evaluate it, and test it on real life examples, and conclude that women must lean in to collective projects that channel individual female voices into a deafening roar.

Following Sandberg’s story is the idea of ‘conscious capitalism’, being defined by the examples and practices set by Whole Foods’ John Mackey. His story is that of a production and consumption model that performs a two-way function — one, it helps consumers stay ‘healthy’ and two, it elevates employee ‘satisfaction’.

His model includes ‘transparency’ in salaries at all levels and thereby rips off the great lie that super-managers deserve their money because, like footballers, they have specialised skills which belong to an almost superhuman elite.

Aschoff tests each of these ideas against norms, laws and business practices.

However, the author turns a bit vague here when she states that “buying better things is not a substitute for hard political choices that a society needs to make about limiting consumptions and resource use” and, at the same time, also comments that “If we don’t want to live in an environmental wasteland, we must build up democratic institutions that organise production and consumption”.

TV star and tech fund In the next chapter, Aschoff discusses the Oprah phenomenon. Oprah Winfrey has been telling the world the story of a poor, black girl who won a beauty contest for white girls in 1971 and went on to accumulate enormous wealth in order to give it back to society. Aschoff unravels the real ideology that Oprah has been propagating. The author reviews the story so engagingly that the reader stays hooked.

Oprah is inspiring people to love themselves, believe in themselves and follow their dreams. Aschoff tells her readers that there is a flaw in the ideology as it does not recognise structural inequality. However, this reviewer feels Oprah’s ideas somewhere connect with the thoughts of economist Simon Kuznets (Nobel winner in 1971), who said the inequality gap inevitably grows smaller as economies develop and become sophisticated.

Finally, Aschoff turns to the story of the world’s most highly acclaimed philanthropists, the founders of the Gates Foundation — Melinda and Bill Gates. This foundation is not like any other charity organisation as it uses profitable solutions to social problems as opposed to unprofitable charity organisations.

Aschoff, who seems to be partially endorsing this ideology, narrates instances from history that test the ideology and concludes with the thought that though such foundations don’t distribute wealth, they do use public money for what it is good for, that is the public itself.

That said, Aschoff does not conclude too well. She poses questions such as “Does this mean that it is pointless to challenge capitalism?” and “What would a radical, anti-capitalist model look like?”, but does not offer answers.

Of course, the book is a one-sided debate as it does not touch upon the fundamental issues and arguments that have propelled capitalism for centuries, but nevertheless does justice to the theme and offers an acutely radical perspective.

Karl Marx believed that capitalism would self-destruct in the endless pursuit of diminishing profit returns. But in the 21st century we have seen capitalists redefining the very system for social good; but how good can that be?

That’s a question many forget to ask. And that’s what The New Prophets of Capitalism tries to figure out. So, yes, the book has the potential to create some ripples and kindle new thoughts.

MEET THE AUTHOR

Nicole Aschoff is an editor at Jacobin magazine and a lecturer in sociology at Boston University. Her research interests lie at the intersection of labour, global political economy, development, and comparative and historical sociology.

(The reviewer is a Delhi-based lawyer)

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